Graphene-Info newsletter

European researchers reach graphene production breakthrough, under project GRAFOL

Researchers involved in the €10.6 million European research project called GRAFOL have reportedly demonstrated a cost-effective roll-to-roll production tool capable of making large sheets of graphene on an industrial scale. The tool operates at atmospheric pressure and at reduced operating temperature, and is proclaimed by the researchers "the best route to low-cost manufacture".

The project team also believes that graphene could be used as a substitute for transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes used in OLEDs, enabling flexible designs while helping reduce dependency on ITO. In addition, the team showed that it is possible to adapt the CVD method to grow graphene on 300 mm-diameter silicon wafers – the standard size currently used in the semiconductor industry. That suggests the potential to integrate graphene in silicon photonics platforms, as well as flexible thin-film solar cells with transparent electrodes (like perovskite PVs, for example).

Some challenges remain, however, before graphene can become part of a commercial large-scale device manufacturing process, since applying graphene to various other substrates still requires a problematic transfer process and a large-scale commercial demonstration of this step is required.

XG Sciences and Boston-Power collaborate to develop batteries with silicon-graphene anodes

XG Sciences and Boston-Power have announced a joint development agreement, aimed at customizing XG Sciences’ silicon-graphene anode materials for use in Boston-Power’s lithium-ion battery products.

The plan is to optimize electrochemical and microstructural electrode performance, as well as developing electrode and battery manufacturing techniques using the two companies’ proprietary materials. The companies see a real synergy between Boston-Power’s battery engineering and design capabilities and the new XG-SiG anode materials. Boston-Power has the ability to design and manufacture the battery, while XG Sciences has the ability to customize the anode materials to best fit the Boston-Power system.

ANM 2016: Advanced nanomaterials, graphene technology and spintronics materials

An interesting new conference series on nanotechnology will be held at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, between July 25th and July 27th, 2016, focusing on the parallel events: (i) 7th International conference on Advanced Nanomaterials, (ii) 2nd International conference on Graphene Technology, and (iii) 1st International conference on Spintronics Materials

These international nanotechnology symposiums promote the gathering of scientists, students and industry experts to exchange and enhance their knowledge and vanguard ideas for future applications.

The Sixth Element presents its graphene-zinc anti-corrosion primer

The Sixth Element Materials, a Chinese company that focuses on R&D, mass production and sales of graphene and related materials, showcased its graphene-zinc anti-corrosion primer used for offshore wind power tower, that can come at a competitive price compared with zinc rich epoxy primer.

The Sixth Element owns 50 & 300 t/year production lines for graphene oxide and graphene powder. Their products range from enhanced graphene, energy storage type graphene, to thermal conduction type graphene and anti-corrosion type graphene.

The MWC 2016 recognizes graphene's potential for the mobile industry

The Graphene-Info team is excited to announce its attendance at the at the MWC 2016, the world's largest event for the mobile industry held in Barcelona, Spain. The MWC 2016 will feature an entire pavilion dedicated to graphene in regards to the mobile world, an exciting precedent that emphasizes the growing attention that graphene is receiving in the technological world.

Graphene has the potential to revolutionize various aspects of mobile technology and components, like display technology (for flexible screens), sensor technology (for wearables, Internet-of-Things, Smart Cities), energy transmission and storage technology (for batteries and supercapacitors), and chip technology (for data communications). If you wish to schedule a meeting with us, contact us heret (or simply reply to this mail).

Directa Plus launches a graphene-based system for tackling environmental emergencies

Directa Plus has announced the commercial launch of the Grafysorber Decontamination Unit, a graphene-based system for tackling environmental emergencies such as oil spills. The Company has also declared that Biocart, an Italian company engaged in the research, development and industrialization of next-gen materials and solutions for the mitigation of natural disasters and environmental remediation, has purchased the first three mobile units.

Directa Plus states that the launch follows successful industrial remediation activities conducted in Italy and Romania. The Grafysorber Decontamination Unit contains a proprietary plasma machine that is able to produce on site all the Grafysorber needed to clean up water contaminated with the harmful hydrocarbons contained in oil spills. As it is a mobile unit, it can be quickly deployed to the site of the spill. It is a sustainable product as it enables the recovery and recycling of the adsorbed oils; it is recyclable; and it does not contain any toxic substances. The ability to produce the graphene on site and in the right quantity renders it a very cost-effective solution compared with conventional solutions.

The best of 2015 - top graphene stories

2015 is pretty much over - and it was another interesting year for the graphene industry. Graphene-based products are slowly entering the market, but more importantly we see new projects, development and investments as people start to realize the amazing potential in this new material.

Here are the top 10 stories posted on Graphene-Info in 2015, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

1. Sunvault Energy and Edison Power present a 10,000 Farad graphene supercapacitor (May 7)
2. Sunvault's graphene-based supercapacitor declared to someday replace Lithium-ion batteries and compete with Tesla's battery aspirations (Apr 10)
3. Stanford scientists make graphene-aluminum battery that charges quickly and lasts over 7,000 cycles (Apr 8)
4. Graphene 3D Lab starts selling conductive graphene filament for 3D printing (Mar 16)
5. Will Tesla's Roadster 3.0 use a graphene-enhanced battery? (Jan 5)
6. Berkeley scientists design graphene-based loudspeakers and microphones (Jul 7)
7. World's first commercial graphene-based supercapacitor chosen for use in spacecraft (May 5)
8. IDTechEx's analyst explains his views on the graphene market (Sep 4)
9. Scientists design a large-scale roll-to-roll graphene manufacturing process (May 21)
10. Graphene-enhanced guitar shown at Graphene Live! (Jan 12)

It seems that most people are interested in graphene's potential for energy storage - mainly supercapacitors and batteries. Indeed these two applications are very promising, and 2015 market the year in which the first graphene-enhanced supercapacitor entered the market. Hopefully next year we'll also finally see a commercial graphene-enhanced battery.

Saint Jean Carbon, a publicly traded carbon science company, announced that it, along with their industry partners, will complete a prototype of a graphene-enhanced diamagnetic wire that will conduct energy at room temperature with superconducting level resistance.

CPI spin-out Primary Dispersions has formed a group that aims to commercialize specialist graphene based epoxy resins for the aerospace industry. Companies in the group include Bombardier, B/E Aerospace, NetComposites, The Institute of Occupational Medicine, and Nanoforce Technology.

Researchers have demonstrated how graphene's conductivity and flexibility will prove crucial to wearable electronic applications, opening the door to battery-free healthcare and fitness monitoring, phones, internet-ready devices and chargers to be incorporated into clothing and ‘smart skin’ applications.

Carbon Sciences has been working on developing graphene-based devices for cloud computing. Now, the company announced that it has signed an agreement with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to fund the research and development of a new graphene-based optical modulator, a critical fiber optics component needed to enable ultrafast communication in data centers for Cloud computing.

Researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) announced the development of an iron-carbon composite catalyst that uses a graphene nanoplate, that can contribute to a reduction in the costs of fuel cells and Li-air batteries.

Applied Graphene Materials, producer of specialty graphene materials, has announced a share placing to raise £10.1 million to scale up its production facilities. AGM has conditionally raised £8.1 million (before expenses), through the placing of 4,628,571 New Ordinary Shares at 175p per share. It has also announced an Open Offer to raise up to £2m.

Rice University researchers have configured their previous invention of Laser Induced Graphene (LIG) into flexible, solid-state microsupercapacitors that rival current leading ones for energy storage and delivery.

An international team of researchers conducted a study that suggests that dental fillings made of graphene oxide could be much more durable than those based on metals or ceramic materials.

Researchers at Korea's ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) developed transparent graphene-based electrodes for OLED panels. The researchers say that these new electrodes improve the transparency and "image quality" of OLEDs by 40 to 60 percent, compared to current silver-based electrodes.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain are developing a portable graphene-based sensor that can rapidly and inexpensively determine whether an eye injury is mild or severe. The device is named OcuCheck and could aid in determining the extent of eye injuries at accident sites, in rural areas lacking ophthalmology specialists or on the battlefield.

Shandong Yuhuang New Energy Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Shandong Yuhuang, is a company focusing on research and development of advanced lithium-ion batteries and related materials.

Graphene 3D Lab has announced filing a provisional patent for a process of 3D printing an OLED light source that immediately functions when printed, with a graphene coated transparent conductor window. This unique structure is the product of an innovative multi-functional 3D Printer, which can make thin films as well as 3D structures.

Graphene 3D Lab and Graphene Laboratories have announced that they have signed a research, development and royalty agreement with a Fortune 500 manufacturer (that has been included in the Fortune 500 list for over 15 years). The agreement specifies the development of multi-phased deliverables over the course of the next 12 months.